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Friday, 22 February 2013

Germanys White Rose - Lest We Forget

We often assume that resistance to a regime such as Communism, Nazism or even the Islamic theologies is impossible ... but its not, however the price is very high - sometimes its because the victors, such as the Ayatollahs of Iran, are infinitely worse than the previous regime - we are for example about to see Syria become another Iran, with the massacre of minorities when the Assad regime falls (I suspect is that fact which is why the regime is still finding supporters amongst those minorities), but also resistance can just be at a high cost on the personal level.

I had for example never heard of the 'White Rose group', who arose in Munich in 1943 to passively resist the German state ... they posted leaflets, and stencilled walls with slogans calling for the German people to resist ... eventually this brave little band were captured, and almost all were executed (two by guillotine) .... and rather strangely one of the group, Alexander Schmorell, was made a saint by the Russian Orthodox church in 2012.

Sophie And Hans Scholl - White Rose Martyrs

Still, whether their resistance was a futile gesture against a regime, who by then were losing the war, or a brave stance that had some meaning, its up to each of us to decide ..... one the few survivors, Lilo Furst-Ramdohr, said only this about the promotion of a near saint like status of this and similar small resistance groups by the post war German society "At the time, they'd have had us all executed".